Wednesday, February 8, 2017

The Greatest Adventure Ever: inspiration & spark

This and other inspirations of mine are gathered in the Spark Directory for you to explore.

Enjoy!

In Part 1 of this series, I described my great experiment, to see if I can create the ultimate story. But my intention is more than to just push myself to do my best. I believe you deserve a crafted caliber of storytelling that has gotten lost amidst the chaos of modern life. A great story captivates readers from the first word to the last. I believe my stories are worth this time and effort, because I think fantasy fans crave a fresh tale, but still want the happy ending.

In a great story, every word matters. Whether the story is oral or written down, words allow for great precision but also pose an obstacle to the delivery of the tale. If a word doesn't need to be there, it impedes the story and must be culled. This is hard for a lot of writers, because we get attached to certain wordings and imagery, but every word must be necessary or it's just slowing down the flow. I cut the fluff - not just in words, but in dialogue, mini-arcs, and extraneous details. I streamline my prose to be the clearest and most gripping communication of my story that it can be.

I write because it helps me make sense of the world. It helps me understand why people do the cruel, irrational things they do. What makes good people do bad things? What drives innocent children to grow up into monsters? How does chivalry and nobility triumph over arrogance, egoism, and greed? These questions drive me, and I play them out through my characters. Each of them is complex, multifaceted, realistic. And, like in real life, each of them has an overarching theme they've come into existence to explore, integrate, and be enriched with wisdom through. Their lessons are my lessons, and lessons of us all.

I write to free myself. I want to share a vision of a world where magic is commonplace, where people grow up accepting that they have magic, and that they can use their magic to make the world a better place. We've forgotten our magic here on earth. But in my Tales of the Known World saga, magic is the foundation of all being. I write these stories as examples, so we can learn to embrace our own magic.

I want to provide a framework through which people can understand how this real-life magic flows into being, anchors our souls into physical form, and guides the unfolding of the universe. These are spiritual concepts, woven into a fantasy world, so readers can absorb these concepts without the background resistance they'd have if presented with these concepts in a real-world fashion. The fantasy stories circumvent our biases about the "real world" and allow readers to resonate with the spiritual concepts they know deep down are true. Once that resonance has been established, my hope is that it will vibrate up from their subconscious to manifest positive change in their real lives. After all, isn't real-life change the greatest adventure ever?